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Was Paul's thorn some sort of sickness?
Many Christians use this verse to support their argument that God wants some of us to stay sick. They say that Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was an eye disease, migraine or some other type of sickness, and that God refused to heal him. Well, let's see how the Bible itself interprets "thorn in the flesh". The expression "thorn in the flesh" is never used in the Bible to mean sickness. And every time the phrase is used in the Bible, it is specifically stated what the "thorn" is.
Witness 1 Before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, Moses told them:
Here, the scripture itself tells us plainly that the "pricks in your eyes" and "thorns in your sides" of the Israelites were the inhabitants of Canaan, and not eye disease or sickness. Moses was warning them that the Canaanites, if allowed to remain, would be a constant annoyance to them.
Witness 2 Many years later, Joshua said the same thing about the Canaanites:
Again, it is clearly stated here what the "thorns" were, and it was certainly not eye disease or sickness.
Witness 3 In the book of Judges, the Lord told the children of Israel the same thing:
Here also, the "thorns" refer to people, not sickness.
Witness 4 Our fourth witness is David, who said:
In all four cases, the Bible makes it explicit what the "thorns" are, so there is no need for wild speculations. And in every case, the "thorns" refer to personalities, not sicknesses.
Usage today Today, we still use the same expression. According to The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (New Edition), when we say that someone is "a thorn in one's flesh/side", we are saying that that person is "a continual cause of annoyance or problems". Similar expressions are "pain in the neck" and "pain in the ass".
Paul's case is no different As with the first four cases presented, the apostle himself tells us plainly what the "thorn in the flesh" was -- "the messenger of Satan":
The original Greek word for "messenger" here is "angelos". According to Strong's Concordance, it means "a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God". In Paul's case, it was an angel of Satan. So, Paul's thorn was a demonic spirit sent by Satan to torment and annoy him. Or, a person or persons carrying that demonic spirit. It was certainly not eye disease, migraine or some sickness as many have wildly speculated. This Greek word "angelos" appears 186 times in the Bible, and is translated "angel" 179 times and "messenger" the other seven times. In all 186 cases, without exception, it refers to a person and not a thing or disease. It is also interesting to note that the Rotherham and Weymouth translations use the pronoun "he" to refer to Paul's "thorn" or "the messenger of Satan". In other words, they tell us that Paul's thorn was a satanic personality and not a disease.
Nature of Paul's thorn Paul not only tells us that his "thorn" was an angel of Satan, but he also tells us what that demon came to do: "to buffet me". The word "buffet" means "to strike repeatedly" or "blow after blow". If Paul's thorn was sickness, then it would mean that Paul was continuously sick. But we don't see a sickly Paul in the Bible. And how could the apostle travel great distances, preaching boldly and healing the sick if he was so sickly? The sick would have laughed at him for preaching about God's healing power! What we do find, however, is a Paul who was frequently persecuted by people, not sicknesses. Paul enumerates his sufferings or "buffetings" in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 and 2 Timothy 3:10-12. Not one time does he mention sickness. (See Are you suffering for the wrong reasons?)
Did God say "no" to Paul?
Many Christians think that God's reply to Paul's thrice repeated prayer to be rid of the satanic messenger was, "Nope, I want you to stay sick." Our Lord never said that, only the traditions of man! And we have already established that Paul's thorn was an angel of Satan and not some illness. Essentially, God's reply to Paul is that He fights for Paul best when Paul is totally helpless, weak and dependent on Him. This is God's grace in action -- God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. All self-efforts to fight the enemy must be put aside if God is to have full control over the situation. God works best without our interference and our efforts to "help" Him. And when we see the victory, we will know that it is all by God's grace. That is why God told Paul that His grace was all that Paul needed to overcome the constant attacks of the messenger of Satan. When Paul realised that this was God's way of doing things -- by grace --, it is no wonder he said that he would gladly "glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" and that "when I am weak, then am I strong [in and through Christ]". So, did God answer Paul's prayer and show Him the solution? Yes! Certainly, God did not give Paul a negative answer and leave him weak and defeated. After all, how can it be true that Christ's strength was made perfect in Paul's weakness (verse 9) if he was left weak. No, I believe Paul was an actual partaker of Christ's strength, which would remove the weakness, whether it was physical or spiritual.
Christians have also used Trophimus' case to argue that God chastens with sicknesses and that He sometimes refuses to heal. But the verse only says that Paul left Trophimus in Miletum because he was sick. To then say that this proves that God chastens with sicknesses and that He sometimes refuses to heal is to jump to wild conclusions! Suppose I met you in church and told you, "John couldn't come with me to the meeting tonight because he's down with a flu and he's resting at home." Does this mean that God made John sick and that He refuses to heal him? Likewise, when we read in Acts that Festus and King Agrippa (Acts 26:24,28) did not believe that Jesus was Lord when Paul preached the Gospel to them, do we then conclude that God's refuses to save some people? And that His will is for some folks to burn in hell? The verse simply means that Trophimus was sick. Is that so unusual? Many Christians in the Corinthian church were sick and some even died prematurely (1 Corinthians 11:30). The same thing still happens today in the church. But just as the existence of the unbelieving does not negate God's Word and will to save, neither does the existence of sick people negate God's Word and will to heal. We cannot base our beliefs on testimonies, positive or negative, but on God's Word -- "let God be true, but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).
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